Beadlocks - Yes, No, and Why?

[Tetten]

I'm curious. I have never had beadlocks or thought about them. what is the constant maintenance?

Both of my sets are OMF conversions so I can't comment from experience on every brand/design/style. But all that I've heard of/looked into recommend checking the torque every so often. The few people I've met in person that run them say they haven't had any issues with any bolts loosening. My 16s loosened up a bit for the first several hundred miles and then seemed to hold torque after that. I've read from others on forums that it seems to be a mix, some folks don't have any issues and others have to retorque a couple times and then they are good. I only have a couple hundred miles on my 17s but they seem to hold torque a lot better, I didn't do the first check until 200miles or so but they didn't loosen up like my 16s.

OMFs have a recommended torque sequence of after first 100miles and then every 250miles afterward. Proper way to retorque consists of letting all the air out of the tire and checking all the bolts and filling it back up.

OMF also recommends replacing all the bolts every year. For shits and giggles I pushed this on my 16s to see what would happen and after about 2 years I had a bolt fail on one of the wheels. I also found out the hard way on my 16s that if they don't get torque checked they'll also start to break bolts....I had a sidewall slash and had to replace one of the tires but forgot to torque it again afterwards, went on a trip to Colorado and I had a couple bolts fail on the same tire on the drive up there, luckily I found it at a gas station and swapped out the tire before it failed.

Generally from what I've read from others it seems, and is my experience as well, that after the first couple hundred miles they are usually good. I only do torque checks before long trips, if I do local trails I don't bother.

 

[Tetten]

I must have missed that conversation where you discouraged me. Hahha. You've talked about how much you like being able to air down to 8 and still romp around without worrying about blowing a bead a few times though.

that PSI has never come out of my mouth, on my 16s I was always around 11-14 whether crawling or cruising. From my experience, going single digits on a LWB vehicle w/ 35s comes with too many clearance compromises. But yes it is nice driving like a retard and not having to worry about slipping a bead. Only reason I have them is for safety, slipping a bead at the wrong time in the desert could result in death.

 

[Dukestaco]

How do they know, every bro is running fake beadlocks.

BTW wheels I just ordered
View attachment 7218

Yeah I have been following and saw that you got those. They are good looking and fit your purpose. Better than the steelies

 

[KevinK]

Discount won't touch them here. Awesome that you have a helper

It may be worth asking them again. My local back in AZ had to look up their policy before they’d balance them. He said they’ll balance and rotate, but won’t mount or dismount. I’ve had occasions where I pulled the ring off and couldn’t break the back bead, so I drove the wheel and tire to them and had them break the rear bead with their machine and just give me back the wheel/tire loosely connected (if that makes sense. They didn’t actually remove the tire from the rim).

Both of my sets are OMF conversions so I can't comment from experience on every brand/design/style. But all that I've heard of/looked into recommend checking the torque every so often. The few people I've met in person that run them say they haven't had any issues with any bolts loosening. My 16s loosened up a bit for the first several hundred miles and then seemed to hold torque after that. I've read from others on forums that it seems to be a mix, some folks don't have any issues and others have to retorque a couple times and then they are good. I only have a couple hundred miles on my 17s but they seem to hold torque a lot better, I didn't do the first check until 200miles or so but they didn't loosen up like my 16s.

OMFs have a recommended torque sequence of after first 100miles and then every 250miles afterward. Proper way to retorque consists of letting all the air out of the tire and checking all the bolts and filling it back up.

OMF also recommends replacing all the bolts every year. For shits and giggles I pushed this on my 16s to see what would happen and after about 2 years I had a bolt fail on one of the wheels. I also found out the hard way on my 16s that if they don't get torque checked they'll also start to break bolts....I had a sidewall slash and had to replace one of the tires but forgot to torque it again afterwards, went on a trip to Colorado and I had a couple bolts fail on the same tire on the drive up there, luckily I found it at a gas station and swapped out the tire before it failed.

Generally from what I've read from others it seems, and is my experience as well, that after the first couple hundred miles they are usually good. I only do torque checks before long trips, if I do local trails I don't bother.

Ours are OMF conversions too, cut for the thinner beads found on Toyo tires. All beadlocks as far as I know require the first few rounds of retorque after new tires are installed because the bead squishes a little over time as the ring squeezes it and it shifts around a little, and needs to be clamped in place harder. We do ours every 100 miles twice and then every 500 twice or after a hard run off road. Then I just do it every oil change (5k miles) or after hard runs. We have a couple years and probably 30-40k on 2 different sets of tires.

Good to know about the bolt replacement though. I haven’t replaced hardware on ours yet. Time to do that I assume.

Only reason I have them is for safety, slipping a bead at the wrong time in the desert could result in death.

Bingo. That’s why we run them. I think we went as low as 5 psi exactly one time so far and that was just in an effort to climb this loose dune and tug @osidepunker of a rock he high centered on at the top in Rasor dunes. There’s no evidence of him actually getting himself unstuck right as we reached the top and us almost crashing into each other.

 

[osidepunker]

Yes

Because I’m tired of rolling beads in high speed corners.

Because I like low speed traction at low psi.


View attachment 7196

Only Kevin would run 40 psi on bead locks

Discount Tire balances ours with 37s on them.

And maintenance is good family time.

My daughter and I replacing tires.

View attachment 7212

View attachment 7211

I'm gonna need more pics of her replacing tires... you know, so I can see how the process goes...

 

[theesotericone]

I rolled my first bead ever yesterday. When I usually run 10 PSI. If needed I'll go down to 8 PSI. I was bullshitting with @AssBurns while airing down yesterday and one of my tires went down to 5 PSI. I talked about airing it back up but decided to just run it. After we finished the trail we went and played in another wash. I was turning hard passenger with the driver front tire running into a rocky muddy bank. This was the result. lol

 

[Rapier46]

Beadlocks are the TITS

I blew a couple beads at 5 psi this winter. Crappy driving though. Completely my fault

Really wish I hadn’t sold my racelines.

 

[KevinK]

Only Kevin would run 40 psi on bead locks



I'm gonna need more pics of her replacing tires... you know, so I can see how the process goes...

37psi. 40 is waaaaaaaay too high.

And no.